Basketball nets new name and a vision for the future

IT MAY BE a new name but Basketball Ireland promises the same excitement and more when the IBA changes its title at an Extraordinary General Meeting this autumn.

The move follows a decision that was a mere two votes short of unanimity at last weekend’s AGM to restructure the sport.

The Irish Basketball Association (IBA) was founded in 1947 and, since then, has been responsible for the promotion, development, administration and co-ordination of all basketball activities in the 32 counties.

Since its inception it has gone from strength to strength and the ongoing development of the sport has resulted in the recent success of the international team at European Championship level.

Basketball is one of Ireland’s leading team sports catering for more than 10,000 club players, 25,000 schools players and over 100,000 people playing basketball through the IBA programmes.

For some time now a Strategic Review Group, led by ASMT consultants, has been carrying out a detailed review of the organisation and, when the results and recommendations were placed before Saturday’s AGM, 112 of the 114 members present voted in favour of a complete restructuring of the sport.

Basketball Ireland will incorporate all existing affiliate organisations and will work to develop all aspects of the sport based on the strategic framework entitled “Connecting Basketball in Ireland.”

The decision was welcomed by chief executive Debbie Massey, who said it was fantastic to get the support of the membership and now they could go ahead and create a more coherent, streamlined and modern organisation.

“The 18 months of travel and consultation, meetings and workshops have paid off,” Massey said. “There was a very positive, confident and upbeat atmosphere at our annual meeting last weekend and I believe the membership is prepared to work with us now to modernise and streamline our structures and make the sport the number one indoor sport in Ireland.”

A central component to the new strategy is the appointment of full-time regional development officers who will work on the ground providing support and resources to the volunteers.

"Allied to this, the creation of a suitable “player pathway” and domestic competitions model will provide the opportunity to recruit over 50,000 new players to the sport over the next three years.

The vision for Basketball Ireland is to make basketball the number one indoor team sport in Ireland with more than 100,000 children and adults having fun playing ball in the community and with clubs; developing it through regional staff and simple, effective development programmes for coaches and teachers and a network of local and regional competitions played with skill, excitement and fair play.